🇺🇸🇮🇷 The island play might be Trump's only clean exit... The USS Tripoli is a week away with 2,200 Marines and F-35Bs. Three islands are reportedly in play. Kharg Island handles 90% of Iran's oil exports. Seize it and you hold Tehran's revenue hostage without wrecking global markets. Qeshm Island sits at the mouth of Hormuz with tunnels packed with fast-attack boats and missiles. Take it and you control the chokepoint itself. Hormuz Island hosts the small naval craft harassing shipping. Clear it and tankers can move again. None of them are technically Iranian mainland, which lets Trump claim "no boots on the ground in Iran" while Marines plant flags offshore. And the deeper play: every barrel of Iranian crude bound for China passes through these waters. Control the islands, control Beijing's energy supply. No tariff could ever match that leverage. Source: WSJ @x4rius
